Chapter Text
The clock in the Mike's Room—the tv-shaped one with antennae for hands—had always been late by exactly 4 minutes. A quiet shadowgal kept that in mind as she looked to check the time, and then turned back to the scene in front of her.
7:49 PM, which was, in her opinion, far too early for this sort of thing.
Said sort of thing being the whisper-screaming match (which was honestly preferred to the usual regular-screaming one) between the other two ‘Mikes’.
“Jongler, what in the roaring were ya thinking, kidnapping a damn baby?!” The die frantically scolded the sheepish-looking zapper, “Where– why– How did you even–?!”
He let out a strangled sort of noise, and dug the apples of his palms into his eyeballs. The silent shadow darkner, staring from her spot on the couch, took the opportunity to finally get a word in. Though it wasn’t much of a word, just the most drawn-out ‘Aww’ she could muster.
“Oh, what an absolute cutie !” She cooed as she stood up, already holding out her hands to the little babe.
“Pluey, do you want us to be accessories to kidnapping?!”
“Oh, but Batts, they’re so cute (◞ ε ◟)!” Pluey pouted as Batts glared at her. “Please-oh-please, can’t we keep them ( –’ ‸ ‘– )?”
“Pluey, it’s a damn baby! Not a pet hamster!”
The gal sulked, muttering something rhyming with Mo Phun.
“Besides,” The other rationalized, “The kid’s probably got another zapper looking everywhere for them.” Jongler looked slightly guilty at that, drooping down even further, but the other only narrowed her eyes and doubled down. “Well, they should’ve been more responsible for them then,” She said icily, clutching the baby to her chest overprotectively. “Finders-keepers ( •̀⤙•́ )!”
“THE KID’S NOT A TOY, PLUEY! You can’t just pick ‘em up from anywhere and decide ‘oh sure, I’ll take ‘em!’, that’s not how babies work!”
Pluey held herself back from blowing an extremely wet raspberry, and instead, like the mature, patient, totally responsible kitty-cat she was, only stuck out her tongue at him.
“And we can't take care of a baby!!!” Making an effort to ignore the gesture, Battat continued on his rant, “We can barely keep our desk plant alive!”
And even that was debatable, the three of them all inwardly thought, as they took a look at the aforementioned succulent, currently wilting on its sunless corner of the room’s singular cluttered table. “Yeah, see? So, back to the question!” He whipped back angrily, still keeping his voice down—the baby watched in silence, content in their new place in the shadowgal’s arms. “Why- No, how in the dark fountain did you kidnap a baby?!”
Jongler, their hands now free, hesitantly rubbed the back of their neck. “Err… I’s told ya, I’s just found it in the staff room!” “And you thought it was a good idea to just take it?!”
“No, no, that’s unusual,” Pluey butt in, “Usually, kids aren’t let in in the studio (*ᯅ*).” She added in a stage-whisper to the baby, “The others worry that Tenna might steal them… but that’s just a rumor, Tenna’d only coo over you cuties for an hour at most (˶ˆᗜˆ˵) hehe.” The little thing giggled as if it understood.
“Well, maybe some zapper just didn’t want to be away from their kid!”
“Err,” The only other zapper in the room started hesitantly, “We’s don’t usually take care of the babes for that long…” At the others’ worried, mouth-open expression, they retracted. “I’s- I’s mean, we’s don’t really, er– keep an eye on them too much after a while..?” “That sounds… concerning.” “It’s not, really! We’s just let ‘em fend for themselves in the baby area.” “That’s even more so.”
“Wait, we have a baby area?” The die asked, snapped out of his word-vomit. Pluey rolled her eyes, “‘Course we do! You’ve just never seen it cause you’re never on babysitting duty ( – ⌓ – ).” “We had babysitting duty?!”
“How do you not know this? Aren’t you the one making the schedules (° _ ° )..???!”